Construction Project News March/April 2012

NEW CLASS A OFFICE BUILDING TO RISE IN CHANDLER

San Diego-based Douglas Allred Company plans for the second phase of Allred Park Place with construction of a 92,109 SF, 2-story office building in Chandler. The project, which broke ground at the end of January, is the first speculative office construction to take place in the greater Phoenix area since 3Q 2009. Mark Krison and Scott German of CBRE’s Phoenix office will handle leasing of the Class A office building. The CBRE team also has the marketing assignment for Allred Park Place Phase I, three Class A office buildings totaling 261,860 SF, of which 52,742 SF is available. Balmer Architectural Group of Phoenix is the architect; Willmeng Construction of Mesa is the general contractor. Expected completion is 4Q 2012. Future plans for Allred Park Place include construction of several additional office buildings, which will eventually exceed 1 MSF.

NEW PHOENIX FBI OFFICE BUILDING OPENS ITS DOORS

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and commercial builder/developer Ryan Companies US, Inc. officially opened the 210,202 SF facility that Phoenix-based FBI personnel will call home for the next 20 years. The facility at 21711 N. 7th St. is built and owned by Ryan Companies and replaces the FBI’s four previous Phoenix locations, allowing expansion and consolidation of agency operations and personnel through a long-term lease agreement. The project created more than 1,500 construction jobs and was completed within more than 500,000 “safe man” hours. The GSA required that the facility achieve a minimum of LEED Silver certification. Ryan Companies used Energy Savings Performance utility agreements to achieve, maintain and/or exceed Energy Star benchmarks.

KITCHELL, ORCUTT | WINSLOW TO CONSTRUCT NEW PATIENT TOWER

Kitchell and Orcutt | Winslow have been selected to design and construct a new patient tower at Chandler Regional Medical Center, a member of Dignity Health. The $125M project will expand capacity, enhance key service lines, and drive new office and medical development in the East Valley. The 5-story inpatient tower is anticipated to remove capacity constraints with the addition of 96 in-patient beds. Site work began last December with vertical construction of the tower scheduled to begin in 4Q 2012. At the peak of construction, it is estimated that the project will have a workforce of more than 200. It is expected to be complete by 3Q 2014. The patient tower follows a recently completed $10M cardiovascular department expansion, also built by the team of Kitchell and Orcutt | Winslow, including two cardiac catheterization laboratories, an additional nine-bed pre/post cardiac short stay unit and ancillary support infrastructure.

CHICAGO CUBS’ SPRING TRAINING FACILITY UPDATE

With the spring training facility for the Chicago Cubs scheduled for completion in 3Q 2013, there is much speculation about what the stadium will look like and how the new general manager of the Cubs will make his mark. Last October, Jed Hoyer was named GM of the Cubs. As his new role, Hoyer will have a “tremendous amount of impact in the design of the facility,” says Bob Hart, vice president of Hunt Construction, the project’s general contractor. (Populous is the architect). As for design of the stadium, there is no word on whether the facility and its surrounding area will have similarities to Wrigley Field or Wrigleyville. “The conceptual design has not yet been determined,” Hart says. “We are expecting the bulk of the design to start in the near future and will last (until) the middle of 2012.” One major decision that has been made regarding the new stadium is that the Arizona State University baseball team will be entering in a contract with the City of Mesa to share the facility with the Cubs. ASU and the Cubs plan to begin play there in 1Q 2014.

SRP, SUNPOWER TO BUILD SOLAR PLANT ON ASU POLY CAMPUS

SRP, ASU and SunPower Corp. have agreed to build a 1MW solar photovoltaic power plant at ASU’s Polytechnic campus in Mesa. The facility will be the first commercial deployment of SunPower C7 Tracker technology, a solar photovoltaic tracking system that concentrates the sun’s power seven times designed to achieve the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for solar power plants. SunPower is engineering and building the plant on the SEC of the Polytechnic campus. Under a purchase-power agreement, SRP will buy the entire output of the solar plant, and in a separate agreement, ASU will purchase all of the energy attributable to the plant for its use at the campus. Construction is contingent on a number of factors, including receipt of all applicable permits.

$12M VETERANS INITIATIVE APARTMENTS BREAK GROUND

Madison Pointe Apartments, a $12M, 79,785 SF housing project designed to give veteran residents convenient access to medical care and veteran services, broke ground in February at 4134 N. 9th St. in Phoenix. Developer is the NRP Group; general contractor is NRP Contractors LLC; and architect is Todd & Associates. Colliers International will provide brokerage services. The project was financed with funds from Bank of America, the Arizona Department of Housing, and the City of Phoenix. Madison Pointe will be a short walk to the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center, Vietnam Veterans of American and the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Estimated completion is 4Q 2012.

DPR, WINSLOW | ORCUTT TEAM UP FOR HOSPITAL LOBBY RENOVATION

The lobby at John C. Lincoln North Mountain Hospital is undergoing a $4M renovation project with DPR Construction as the general contractor. Architect for the 12,840 SF renovation is Orcutt | Winslow. The project consists of exterior and interior renovation and expansion of the existing main entrance and lobby. The area will include a welcome/greeting desk, admitting office, gift shop, new coffee bar, for service area, along with an indoor/outdoor meditation area. Expected completion is 2Q 2013.

MCCARTHY COMPLETES 17MW SOLAR STATION FOR APS

McCarthy Building Companies recently completed the $14.3M, 145-acre APS Cotton Center Solar Station in Gila Bend. The project involved installation of the largest photovoltaic system in Arizona. It included a racking system, modules and electrical system for the 17MW facility. Subcontractors included Blount Contracting, Buesing Corp., Schuff Steel, Ironco and Delta Diversified.

Find out more on the above construction project news at the following links.

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